Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Current computing devices may connect to the Internet via a variety of different networks. For example, a computing device may connect to the Internet via a Wireless Local Area Network (Wi-Fi), or a wired Local Area Network, a cellular data network. In some cases, a computing device may connect to the Internet via any of the above available networks. For example, a computing device may connect to the Internet via either a Wi-Fi network and/or a cellular data network. The type of network used may be determined by the device, the network availability, and/or the user. As will be appreciated, the Internet connection “type” (e.g., Wi-Fi, wired, cellular, or the like) may be dynamic. That is, the connection type may change. This may be particularly true for mobile devices (e.g., laptops, tablet computers, smart phones, or the like). Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet connection for some devices, it may be difficult to determine how to synchronize data between the connected device and a destination accessible via the Internet.
For example, cloud based services may allow automatic synchronization of data. A cloud based storage service provider, for example, may allow data (e.g., photographs, documents, or the like) to be automatically synchronized between a client device and the cloud storage devices. New photographs, documents, or the like, may be uploaded from the client device to the cloud storage provider devices via the Internet. Additionally, changes to existing data (e.g., additions, modifications, deletions, or the like) may be automatically synchronized from the client device to the cloud storage devices whenever an Internet connection is available.
As stated, a device's Internet connection may be dynamic. Accordingly, some cloud services allow for selective synchronization. For example, synchronization may be enabled based on the type of connection to the Internet. As a further example, synchronization may be enabled for Internet connections using Wi-Fi but disabled for Internet connection using a cellular data network (e.g., 3G, 4G, or the like).